Child support imperiled: More jobless parents seek break from courts

When Bryan Kalina's divorce was made final in November, he agreed to pay his former wife $600 a month to support their three young children. Less than a month later, he was out of work.

The 29-year-old Itasca man, who restored damaged cars for an insurance contractor, said he has applied for dozens of jobs, including a janitor's position, but has had no luck. Meanwhile, the meter on his legal obligation has continued to run.

That's what brought him to a courtroom on the 30th floor of the Daley Center recently, hoping to get his child-support payments lowered until his finances improve.

A lot of parents are telling similar stories these days. With unemployment creeping above 9 percent in Illinois, child support has become an obligation some say they no longer can meet.

The Illinois Division of Child Support Enforcement is seeing a slowdown in collections and an increase in support paid out of unemployment benefits. The agency and court officials also say more parents are asking for a break.

The trend is straining the lives of custodial parents, who rely on the monthly checks to keep their own households running.

"It's a constant struggle. You have to live without it, and whatever you get is a blessing," said Raquel Eng, 36, of Evanston. She said her husband, from whom she is separated, has not paid support for their 7-year-old son since losing his job last year.

Whether support stems from a divorce or a paternity case, Illinois law requires the parent who doesn't have custody to pay between 20 percent and 50 percent of his or her income, depending on the number of children.

A judge can modify the agreement when a parent is out of work, and that has been happening with increasing regularity in the region's courthouses.

"We had 18 cases on the call tonight; at least half of them were motions to reduce support," DuPage County Judge Stan Austin said recently.

A year ago, Cook County established hearings solely for those who want to lower their payments because of financial problems. But it's not always easy to determine the merit of those requests, as one recent session demonstrated.

Three cases came before a hearing officer, but none of the parents showed up. Assistant Atty. Gen. DaToya Burtin-Cox, representing the Division of Child Support Enforcement, said two fathers were trying to get disability benefits.

"Every time I ask [one of the fathers] how he applies, he gets frustrated and just says they keep denying him," Burtin-Cox told the hearing officer, who rescheduled the case.

Some assertions of lost income are flat-out frauds. Zeophus Williams, who supervises child-support enforcement for the Cook County state's attorney's office, recalled a case of a North Shore man who said he was broke.

"When he decided to go out of town, he was paying hundreds of dollars to put his dogs in a kennel," Williams said. "Based on where he lived and the fact he could pay that [kennel] bill, the court was convinced he could pay child support."

But even honest and well-intentioned parents can run afoul of the system when they lose their jobs, experts say. They either assume their obligation disappeared along with their income, or they try to work out an informal deal with their former spouses.

The potential problem with that, Chicago matrimonial lawyer Scott Colky said, is that only a judge can alter a child-support agreement. Otherwise, the debt continues to mount.

"Even if your spouse is perfectly OK with it, you owe that money," he said. "The minute child support is due ... it becomes fixed in stone. It's not the parent's right [to change the terms]."

The state garnishes unemployment checks of those who owe child support -- though it usually amounts to less than they had been paying -- and directs them to various retraining and job-hunting services.

One fledgling program from the Illinois Department of Employment Security offers extensive career counseling to Cook County parents who owe child support. But a spokesman said only about 20 people have been referred to the program, and only two got jobs.

Some say the character of this recession, deepened by the crumbled housing market, is making it especially difficult for fathers to hold up their end.

"Most of the folks that we see dealing with [child-support issues] are construction folks, union guys, and it's a major problem for them because the work isn't out there," said Amie Simpson, executive director of the Will County Legal Assistance Program. "They can't find anything else paying nearly what they made."

Bryan Kalina said that's what is happening to him. He goes to the library every morning to hunt for leads and has gone on numerous interviews, he said, but his management experience seems to be holding him back.

"I've been applying for jobs I know I can do, but they probably think I'm way overqualified," he said.

His former wife, Adriana Kalina, 30, has limited sympathy. She has primary custody of their children and said she has been holding down three jobs -- two as a waitress, one as a nail technician -- to support them.

"I work 15-hour days but still have enough time to take them to all their activities," she said. "He has to find something."

Judge Vega has so far declined Bryan Kalina's request to lower his child-support payments and has instead ordered him to return periodically to report on his job search.

That's what brought Bryan Kalina and his former wife to court this month. Before it was their turn, though, they witnessed a dismal parade of parents who had run up large support debts. One man wore the tan scrubs of Cook County Jail, where he had just spent a week for blowing off his court dates.

The sight wasn't lost on Bryan Kalina, who pledged to the judge that he was trying his hardest.